We arrived at the Tourist Centre, discussed where we could fossick and paid for a permit.

After we were organised, we drove out to the permit fossicking site, to make sure that we could find it. No probs, we found it and easily found some agate. After lunch, we annoyed the Tourist Centre lady, Evelyn, and asked where the other gem sites are and we visited them. Tomorrow, we will fossick in earnest.

Today our main objective was to go fossicking, for Agate but at the last minute, we changed our minds and decided to go fossicking for Gypsum near the airport. We will look for Agate tomorrow.

We went to the Norseman Tourist Centre and spoke to Evelyn, who is a fossicker and very helpful. We enquired about fossicking around Norseman and she told us about the Agate and Gypsum crystals areas.
Evelyn said there is a site on Lake Cowan, near the airport. This is interesting because there is no physical building for the airport, just a runway on the dried Lake Cowan and that is all. The airport is a couple of kilometers from the Tourist Centre on your way to Esperance. The location is -32.207908 121.761712 thanks again to my Harry Hema GPS. This location is where we parked the mighty Navara and then walked in a Northerly direction towards the Hospital, which maybe a kilometer away. You can drive your car, but I didn't trust the dried lake so Marg and I walked. As we approached a drain, we started to see crystals, we assume that they were gypsum crystals.
The crystals are solid, but the other stuff we photographed appears to very soft and easily broken, so we have wrapped it in bubble wrap to try and get it back to Melbourne in October. I think that we are pushing 'it' uphill.
We only got as far as the drain, as we again got enough specimens for us, probably about 1/3 of a Coles green cloth shopping bag full.
There is no permit required to fossick in this area.

This morning we went gypsum crystal fossicking and this afternoon we went looking for the Agates.

We went to the Norseman Tourist Centre and spoke to Evelyn, who is a fossicker and very helpful. We enquired about fossicking around Norseman and she told us about the Agate area.
Evelyn said there is a site about 12kms north of Norseman, just off the Coolgardie-Esperance highway. The location is -32.132257 121.699433 thanks to my Harry Hema GPS. The area is on a leased area and the owner charges us $5.50 per couple for a mud map which also acts as a permit. You pay at the Tourist Centre and they give you the mud map as well. From memory you are not allowed to use a metal detector, which didn't worry us, as we are looking for pretty rocks. It was very easy to find and there is heaps of agate laying around, we took about 1/2 a Coles green cloth shopping bag full.